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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter Sixty-Nine: Something Big Happened
The five detectives left outside had disappeared, and everyone began to feel anxious. Team Leader Wang hurriedly shouted their names into the surrounding area, but the entire Liu Family Village was silent; there was no response from the five.
Wang was both angry and worried, muttering, "Where did those guys run off to? Didn't I tell them to stay at the entrance?"
No one answered him. With the five missing, everyone felt a vague sense of unease. I said, "Could something have happened?"
Wang was already uneasy, but hearing my words startled him. He replied, "But we were just inside the house. If something happened to them outside, how come we didn't hear their shouts?"
I couldn't answer that question, and just then, one of the detectives suddenly pointed ahead and exclaimed, "Look! What is that?"
His words sounded particularly alarming in the quiet night. We all hurriedly looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a bare old locust tree several hundred meters away. In the moonlight, we could see four or five dark objects hanging from the bare branches of the tree!
At that moment, our hearts raced. Although we couldn't clearly see what those dark objects were, our instincts told us they must be people!
I immediately shouted, "Oh no! Those hanging there are people!"
Wang panicked as well; without waiting for him to give orders, everyone rushed toward the old locust tree.
After a while, we arrived breathlessly at the base of the tree. Looking up, we all gasped in horror because those five objects hanging from the tree were indeed the five missing detectives!
Wang shouted urgently, "Quick! Get them down!"
At Wang's nearly hoarse shout, everyone finally reacted and hurriedly climbed the tree to bring them down.
The five were soon lowered to the ground. I quickly stepped forward and touched one of them; as soon as my hand made contact, I was shocked to find that they were ice-cold!
Then I checked for a pulse; it had already stopped. Clearly, we had discovered them too late—they were already dead.
At that moment, a police officer who was checking the body on the ground suddenly let out a loud "ah" and fell onto the ground in shock, looking extremely panicked.
Everyone was startled by him and didn't know what was happening. The officer pointed at the body of another police officer in front of him, trembling as he exclaimed, "He... he is smiling!"
"Ah?" Upon hearing this, everyone was surprised because just moments ago, they had all checked those five police officers, and they were definitely dead. How could a dead person possibly smile?
I instinctively looked at the face of the body in front of him, and as soon as I did, I felt a chill run from my head to my toes.
I had dealt with ghosts for many years and had seen many corpses of those who died by hanging. The expressions of those who suffocated to death by hanging usually showed wide-open pupils and tongues sticking out, looking very terrifying. However, the face of the police officer in front of me clearly did not show signs of dying from hanging. What was chilling was that there was no trace of the pain one would expect from suffocation; instead, his pale face had eyes squinted into slits with the whites showing, but his mouth was bizarrely twisted into what looked like a sinister grin.
I felt a deep chill in my heart from this strange grin because this manner of death was too bizarre. I then looked at the other four bodies, and they all bore similar expressions of grotesque smiles.
Everyone also noticed the eerie expressions on the bodies and gasped in fear. For a moment, they forgot their sorrow and were instead consumed by terror.
Team Leader Wang asked me in horror what was going on.
I replied that I didn't know either, but they shouldn't have died from hanging since their expressions didn't resemble those who suffocated.
Team Leader Wang was shocked and said, "If they didn't die from hanging, then how could they be hanging from this tree?"
Indeed, if they didn't die from hanging, how did they end up suspended in this tree?
These questions went unanswered. I looked around at everyone and found that they were all looking at me. One officer couldn't help but ask, "Sir, do you think these five were killed by ghosts?"
Team Leader Wang stopped speaking and also fixed his gaze on me. Clearly, everyone believed that they had been killed by ghosts.
To be honest, I wasn't sure either. However, since everyone was asking for my opinion, I replied, "It’s obvious that there can't be any outsiders in this village. Even if there were people here, all five of them are well-trained police officers. Do you think anyone could be so powerful as to subdue these five officers before they even had a chance to resist or call for help? And look at their expressions before death; it's just too strange."
"Are you saying that all five encountered ghosts and lost their lives?" Team Leader Wang looked at me.
Although I didn't explicitly say whether it was caused by a human or a ghost, after my analysis, everyone already had their own answer in mind: these five people could not have been killed by a human.
Looking at the five bizarrely grinning corpses in front of me and thinking about the Evil Spirit hidden in this Ghost Village, everyone began to show signs of panic, occasionally glancing around, fearing they might become the next victim.
Team Leader Wang was very downcast. I advised him, "Team Leader Wang, I suggest we head back to the city as soon as possible. I have a feeling this village is very unsettling. If we stay any longer, something else might happen."
Wang sat down on the Ground and started crying. Despite everyone's attempts to comfort him, he ignored them. After a while, he stood up again, wiped his tears, took a deep breath, and shouted at the village, "No matter whether you are human or ghost, I swear I will bring you to justice and avenge my teammates!"
His voice echoed far in the silent village, but once he stopped speaking, the village returned to its previous dead silence...
Before long, we left Ghost Village. We had come with twenty-one people and returned with five fewer—six more corpses!
On the way back, no one spoke; everyone felt extremely dejected. Indeed, not a single shadow was seen, yet five comrades had inexplicably died, which weighed heavily on everyone's hearts. Especially Team Leader Wang; he kept blaming himself for having assigned those five detectives to stay outside.
After some comforting words from others, he felt a bit better. The night journey was still difficult, but fortunately, leaving the mountain went relatively smoothly; at least we didn't encounter various supernatural events like we did on the way there.
Around four in the morning, we arrived at the main road of the county town. I got out of the car and returned to Master Ma's shop while Team Leader Wang and the others went back to the City Bureau.
As soon as I entered the shop, I saw Master Ma looking flustered as he sat in a chair inside. The computer in front of him was off; clearly, he hadn't gotten up in the middle of the night just to play cards.
As soon as I walked in, he stood up from his chair and immediately questioned me angrily, "Did you not listen to my advice and went to a dangerous place?"
I was taken aback and momentarily speechless.
At that moment, Master Ma said angrily, "What’s wrong? Did I say something wrong? I warned you early on that you were in danger recently, but you didn’t listen. Not long after you left, I calculated your fortune and found it fraught with peril. Were you trying to scare me to death?"
Suddenly, I felt a warm current surge within me. Although Master Ma usually appeared extremely lewd and treated me disrespectfully as if I were free labor, I didn’t expect him to care so much about my safety. I suddenly felt that this seemingly lewd old man was quite endearing.
However, at this point, I couldn't hide anything from him anymore. I said, "A few days ago, the captain of the City Detective team contacted me about a tricky case and wanted my help. So tonight I accompanied them to a location."
Master Ma immediately asked me where I was going when he heard that I was indeed out on business. Since he was so concerned about me, I had no reason to hide anything from him, so I told him everything about Liu Family Village.
“Liu Family Village? You mean you actually went to Liu Family Village, that Ghost Village where the entire village has perished?” After hearing this, Master Ma appeared extremely flustered.
I nodded and asked if he had heard of this village.
He didn’t say much, only stated, “You are not allowed to go to Liu Family Village again!”
Upon hearing this, I immediately wore a distressed expression and exclaimed, “Master Uncle, how can that be? I promised Captain Wang that I would help them. If I suddenly back out, wouldn’t that be breaking my promise?”
Master Ma wouldn’t listen to my grievances. His expression darkened, and he changed from his usual lewd demeanor to a serious one as he said, “What I say goes; you are not to go. Is your life more important or your promise?”
I replied, “The reason I left home to venture out is to catch ghosts and subdue demons. How could I hide away just because of a few Evil Spirits in Liu Family Village? Besides, I might not even run into any trouble.”
Master Ma said, “What if I told you that the situation in Liu Family Village involves more than just Evil Spirits? Would you believe me?”
Hearing this made me jump in surprise, and I hurriedly asked him, “Master Uncle, are you saying there are living people causing trouble in Liu Family Village?”
Master Ma didn’t elaborate but simply said, “In any case, don’t meddle in the affairs of Liu Family Village. That person is not someone you can provoke!”
Although I didn’t understand why Master Ma said this, I had a vague feeling that he seemed to know a lot about Liu Family Village. Moreover, judging by his tone, it sounded like he was aware of the background of the person causing trouble there. Otherwise, why would he say that Liu Family Village was not just plagued by Evil Spirits, but also warn me that the person there was someone I couldn’t handle?
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